Focus Newsletter

Workplace pressure and employee stress cost business billions.

It's a much more common problem than some might think. And it's a problem that costs American business anywhere from $50 to $100 billion a year. Health claims, worker's comp claims, missed or lost work days, costly on-the-job errors: more and more research shows employee stress is to blame.

The numbers vary, but a growing number of studies say stress is also behind around 40 percent of job turnovers. And as we all know, replacing a worker can get very expensive.

Workplace stress continues to be as real in 2012. In fact, with the present economy and unstable job situations, it's safe to say both workplace and personal stresses are as high or higher than ever. Current information from BJC HealthCare (St. Louis's Barnes-Jewish Health System) says that:

• Disabling stress has doubled over the past six years in the United States
• One million people miss work every day due to stress-related problems
• Companies spend an average of $7,500 per employee each year due to stress
• 75-80 percent of workplace accidents are stress-related

The signs of workplace stress or pressure.

Let's take a look at some typical workplace stress signs:

• More employee mistakes or errors
• More employee accidents and injuries
• Lower productivity
• Higher employee turnover
• More equipment breakage
• More missed deadlines or employees taking longer to finish tasks
• More employee absenteeism
• More insurance and workers' comp claims
• More violence and conflicts between employees
• More employee grievances and lawsuits

Are they showing up in your workplace? High levels of pressure and stress are a serious problem and often need professional help. But there are a few things you can do to improve stressful situations. First is, of course, discovering the causes of stress. Like everything else, when you know what's behind a problem, it's easier to find ways to fix it.

Common causes.

The most typical causes of workplace pressure or stress include:

• Company changes – new management, a new supervisor, or reorganization
• Tight deadlines
• Understaffing
• Employees not feeling prepared or trained for their jobs
• Employees not feeling appreciated
• Employees not feeling like they're part of a successful organization
• Lack of communication with employees about company changes
• Employees feeling they can't balance their work and their personal lives

Sounds like just about every company these days, right? Well, not exactly. Time and time again, the companies that succeed are the ones with programs in place to help manage pressure. These companies know the value of engaged, productive workers – sometimes because they've borne the cost of unhappy, unproductive ones.

An about.com article about Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" explains:

The truth is, companies that have a well-treated and happy workforce are usually successful businesses. Employees there are generally motivated, their creativity is stimulated and they work better in teams. The positive environment contributes to the health of the personnel – stress is a negative health factor – thereby helping to reduce absenteeism and increasing productivity. And it makes perfect sense that in difficult economic times, when the news is filled with stories of layoffs, business closings and bankruptcies, that morale will remain higher at companies where people enjoy going to the office.

Stressed people are not safe people.

Managers are trained to focus on dangers in the workplace like wet floors, unsafe equipment, or other problems. But did you know that most workplace accidents stem from poor employee decision making? More and more studies are showing this to be true. In fact, one paper says that unsafe behavior is behind about 80 percent of workplace accidents. That leaves only 20 percent to dangers in the workplace environment itself.

Of course, an unhealthy environment can play its own part in workplace pressure. Employees who have to work in dangerous, noisy, or poorly organized settings are often stressed by safety and logistical issues. In a 1985 National Health Interview Survey, 11 million workers said they experienced workplace stress levels that were "health-endangering."

Plain and simple, stressed people don't think well. Many studies have been done on the subject, and all conclude that overstressed or pressured employees are far more likely to make bad decisions and engage in unsafe behaviors.

Research shows that stressed people:

• Either don't focus enough, or focus too much on one thing to the point of "tunnel vision," which causes them to ignore dangers in their surroundings
• Don't follow directions
• Get in a hurry and ignore safety rules
• Tend to get clumsy or awkward, setting themselves up for accident or injury
• Try to "force" equipment that's not working, thus breaking the equipment or hurting themselves

So what's a manager, supervisor or Human Resources person to do?

How do you help your company respond to the day-in-day-out pressure of life in business? How do you determine if your workplace is overly stressed, and how do you fix it? Ultimately, how do you protect your company's most valuable resources, your employees, from being "burned out?"

First, ask yourself about sources of stress in your company. As we said above, there can be many, especially these days:

• High workloads
• Organizational changes
• Not feeling in control of one's job
• Company's culture and operating style
• Emphasis on competition
• Fear of job loss
• Increased or new technology
• The push for multi-tasking
• Personal problems like marriage and family troubles, financial worries, child- or eldercare problems, legal problems, mental health and substance abuse problems, life crises or stage-of-life issues

Wondering if these are a problem at your workplace? The best thing to do might be to ask the people who work there.

Consider an employee workplace survey.

There are various "diagnostic" tools available from different sources. But sometimes a simple survey is a very good place to start. Typical survey questions might include:

• Do you feel your supervisor respects you?
• Do you believe our company is committed to quality?
• Do you know what is expected of you in your job?
• Do you feel you have enough time to do your job right?
• Do you think our company has a positive work environment?
• Do you feel like you have some control over your job?
• Are you proud of our company and the work it does?

But you don't need to write your own. There are surveys available from various consultants, workplace organizations, and employee-assistance program (EAP) providers. Your professional human resources association might be a good place to start finding a survey that works for your employees. You can also talk to your EAP and see what they have on offer.

One good thing about a survey: when you ask employees to share their opinions, you're already giving them a greater feeling of control and participation than they may have had in the past.

This leads us to a few other "homegrown" ideas that might improve the situation at your company. Some often-mentioned ones are:

• Be aware of employee workloads
• Know your employees and how they work best
• Make sure the workload is shared fairly
• Help people prioritize
• Keep up regular and clear communication
• Don't forget to praise a job well-done
• Let people know what's going on in the company
• Help employees feel like they have input on their jobs
• Encourage employees to talk to each other and make connections
• Invite ideas on how to make employees' jobs better or more efficient
• Take complaints seriously
• Offer training programs that teach stress management techniques, relaxation, time management, positive thinking, and assertiveness
• Institute flexible work schedule or telecommuting options if possible
• Be flexible, within reason, in letting employees take time away from work to deal with personal and family issues
• Consider providing a relaxation space in your workplace
• Be aware of yourself as a role model and demonstrate good coping and stress reduction behaviors
• Communicate with your own supervisor, too – i.e., keep your management in the loop about workflow, workload issues and progress, and enlist their support

As one article says, keeping your valued employees from burning themselves out is not micromanagement at all. It's protecting a valuable business asset.

Put yourself first.

It might sound surprising. But first you've got to take care of yourself, says an article from LifeWorks. Basically, if you're a stressed-out wreck you're not going to be able to help anyone else. You won't think clearly and you risk not having a good perspective on the situation.

Signs of personal stress include:

• Changes in sleep habits
• Fatigue (feeling tired all the time)
• Depression
• Feeling nervous, irritable or on-edge
• Having trouble concentrating
• Having trouble making decisions
• Less productivity at work
• Overeating, or having no appetite
• Frequent crying
• Pulling away from family and friends
• Tense muscles
• Shakiness or trembling
• Stomach pain or upset
• Headaches
• Drug or alcohol abuse

If you're experiencing any of these signs, seek help from a therapist, counselor, or your EAP. Talk to trusted family and friends. Don't try to go it alone or suffer in silence. A healthy company happens one healthy person at a time. And a healthy company has a better bottom line.

Make the change for the better.

The hallmarks of a healthy workplace should be easy to see: happy employees who feel like they're an important part of a winning team. Achieving this may not seem like the easiest thing to do, but it is possible. Especially when you consider that productive, creative contributing employees are at the center of the world's most successful companies. Those companies find it well worth the effort every time they look at the balance sheet.